1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a user interface for a printing apparatus comprising a plurality of print heads and an apparatus control system, each print head being movable in a first direction. The user interface includes a display device connected to the apparatus control system and is arranged to visualize an aligning of the plurality of print heads in at least one window thereof.
2. Description of Background Art
By the term “printing apparatus,” an apparatus is meant that has a print function, for example a printer, a copier, a multi-functional, a roll-to-roll printer, a roll-to-sheet printer, a cut sheet printer, a flatbed printer, and a relief printer. By the term “color,” an arbitrary color is meant, including white, grey and black.
By the term “print head movable in the first direction” is meant that the print head is physically or virtually movable in the first direction. When the print head is physically moving in the first direction, the print head itself is actually moved in the first direction. When the print head is virtually moving in the first direction, the print head itself is not moved in the first direction, but nozzles at at least one end of the print head in the first direction are activated or deactivated.
From a known printing apparatus, like described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,292,398, aligning of a plurality of print heads is known. In the known printing apparatus, aligning is performed by determining the position of each of the print heads and indicating that a print head should be moved in the first direction over a distance. The distance can be input by a user at the user interface. However, if at least one print head has to be moved, the user has to consider mutual influences caused by the movements with respect to the final positions of the print heads. Most of the time, the movement of the print heads is a virtual movement, accomplished by using less or more nozzles in an overlapping area of the print heads.